By Stanman63Thanks To JennaFL For Proofing And Nora Adrienne for editing!

Synopsis:After her brutal assault and rape, Terri learns about her past that helps her to start dealing with her pain as she sees that she can survive.

From My Despair-1

He wasted no time in dialing "911" for me, getting the Bay City Police out along with an ambulance from Bay City Memorial Hospital while I literally crashed in the Employee Lounge as my adrenalin fueled panic left me shaking in withdrawal.

Jacob Burrows answered the ad for a mall Santa, and was surprised to discover that one had to actually attend a class before you were allowed to put on the red suit and beard. In fact, he was sent to a day long “Santa School”.

At the class, Jacob spent the day learning how best to act “jolly”, even when things were not going well. Things like when a kid pulls on your beard or pees on your pants.

There was also a discussion on what to do if a kid asks for something other than a present, and this led to some of the “Santas” to stand up and share stories.

They told of kids asking that a sibling wasn’t sick, or that a parent could find a job, of wishing mommy and daddy would stop fighting, or that there would be enough food on the table for Christmas dinner.

The drive across to Gran's was a bit slower than usual, being the summer hol's there was a fair bit of grockle* traffic meandering about the Peak District. We eventually arrived at Gran's house at nearly eleven, full twenty minutes later than expected.

"Hello kids" Gran greeted us

"Hi Gran" Jules and I echoed

"Jen"

"Mum"

Gran and Mum had a longer than usual hug before we all made our way into the house.

By Stanman63Thanks To JennaFL For Proofing And Nora Adrienne for editing!

Synopsis: When pre-op Jerri Lynn is violently raped by the mayor's son, which caused Jerri Lynn to be ostracized by the community. When the case is dismissed due to improper handling of evidence, she plans a revenge that only her best friend's Love prevents, leading to her finding peace as she gives up her anger and embraces Love.

May the gods and goddesses of our people bless the readers, especially those I love.

My name was Abraxes, and I was a slave. Despite this, the gods blessed me beyond all measure, and I will die as a member of the nobility. For my children, and their children, I wish to record what happened, so they may know how that happened, and thank the gods and goddesses who brought such joy into my life. The account I must relate is strange, stranger than any other I have heard of, but I swear by all our gods and goddesses that it is the truth.

I must first recount how I became a slave. My father had become indebted to a moneylender named Adiano. Our whole family was threatened with slavery. Desperate, my father took me and my twin sister Aleda to a rival of Adiano’s, a nobleman named Argyro.

His sister, Janet had asked him if he would mind giving her three friends a lift down to the dress shop for the final fitting of their bridesmaids' dresses and, lacking otherwise gainful employment, he'd agreed. It wasn't often that he had a chance to spend time with pretty girls, and these three were amongst the prettiest he'd met. The thing was, he tended to get hopelessly tongue tied around women and, having done his usual grunts and gurgles on first meeting them, they'd made their hellos and thank-yous for politeness' sake then fallen into chatting amongst themselves leaving Phil to his own thoughts.

Steve is a bit of a loner and a prime target for other people's jokes because one thing everyone knows about him is that he can't ignore a dare. A couple of his not exactly friends have a challenge for him which smells a bit off, but what they don't know is that in trying to trick him into a humiliating situation, they're offering him the thing he's dreamed of for so long, and the beginnings of a journey of discovery.

Twelve years. Twelve long, miserable years. And she was at the end of herself....

She could still vividly recall the first time she realized she was different. She also remembered praying about it every day, trying everything she could think of to hide her “sin”. She had feared the difficulty it would cause, and her father, who was a member of the Pharisee sect fulfilled her fears, and then some. His reaction stung, even now.

I was still eating breakfast when Mum and Jules left for the day, they were off to Leeds and I'm off to the Peters'! I decided to walk over to Maddy's and I thought I'd box clever, I usually ended up having to 'borrow' underwear for these dressing up sessions, but today I was already wearing 'Gaby' knickers. Well its embarrassing borrowing underwear!

"Hi Drew" Mrs Peters greeted me a short while later.

"Hi Mrs P, I've come for a costume fitting" I pointlessly told her

"That daughter of mine was at it all day yesterday, I can't wait to see what she comes up with" she informed me

It was humiliating. I mean bad enough that I should find myself made redundant after nearly thirty years of nearly continuous employment. Worse still that all the skills I’d built up in my various meanderings through the great career archipelago were considered insufficient or irrelevant to whatever challenge that latest pipsqueak, fresh out of college, prospective employer wanted me to face.

In a way it was my own fault. Most people I knew had chosen to stick with one career, had worked hard and had specialized. That was the thing these days, businesses didn’t want all-rounders anymore; they were only interested in applicants who had twenty years’ experience in advanced widget shuffling or whatever nonsense. My own life had seen me bounce from one career to another like a pinball caught between the bumpers.

Synopsis: When a young man falls in love with a Trans-Girl, A Transphobic pastor begins a hate campaign that ends in tragedy and triumph as death leads to a new life.

My name is Lars Micheal Anderson and am about to graduate from Sanford University with a PhD. in Psychology. I will be working with the Transgendered Community to honor my dead girlfriend Katrina Leona Stewart who's Love for me led to my redemption and return to God.

When I got home, the house was in turmoil. Dad was hoovering like crazy and Jules was busy dusting.

"You're back then" Jules stated flatly

"Yeah, what's going on?"

"Mum's back tomorrow?" she told me

"I know"

"The place is a mess so we're cleaning"

Now don't get me wrong here, our house is not exactly a palace, nor is it a pig sty - and Mum is hardly the house-proud type either! In fact since she's been in Germany the place has been tidier than usual, we've had a cleaning rota and apart from a bit of surface mess, magazines and stuff, it's looking pretty good.

An old man on a flight up the California coast tells the young stranger sitting beside him about a famous movie villain that had lived next door to him when he was a boy. An actor who was known for playing mad scientists and vampires, but in real life had been a remarkably kind and gentle man. And while his fame hasn’t endured the way Boris Karloff’s has, at the time even movie critics who panned the films he was in admitted that this startlingly ugly man brought a rare sensitivity to the types of roles he specialized in, as if he knew these monsters’ private pain.

Then the teller’s story takes a strange left turn. Claims about the actor’s suicide that---as preposterous as they might sound---would be nice to believe. That rather than drowning himself on that rainy day in March of 1941, Max Grosz had found his way to a second chance at life, and a very different sort of acting career that would win the hearts of a nation...

ALCHEMY AND ESSENCELaika Pupkino ~ 2011

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“Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death…”
~~Werner von Braun

Prince Henry Wynter was the Heir to the High Throne of the Heptarchy and prophesised to one day lead his people to unparalleled greatness. Twenty two years after he abandoned his destiny and his throne for the chance to be the person he felt he was meant to be, he finds that Fate has not yet finished with him. The events surrounding the proposed appointment of a new Heir to the High Throne have consequences that reach as far the remote farmstead refuge of the former prince and threaten to destroy the new life that she has built for herself.